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Cookies on the NHS website

What are cookies?

Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.

They store information about how you use the website, such as the pages you visit.

Cookies are not viruses or computer programs. They are very small so do not take up much space.

How we use cookies

We use cookies to:

  • make our website work, for example by keeping it secure
  • remember which pop-ups you've seen
  • measure how you use our website, such as which links you click on (analytics cookies)
  • help show you relevant health campaigns on social media
Information:

When you log in to the NHS website, you are logging in to your NHS account. The NHS account cookies policy will apply while you are using services within your NHS account.

List of cookies that make our website work
Cookies needed for the NHS website work
Name Purpose Expires
Name

.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.9TtSrW0hzOs

Purpose

Helps keep the site secure by preventing cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

.ASPXANONYMOUS

Purpose

Remembers your activity across multiple pages to improve your experience

Expires

69 days

Name

_smokefree_session

Purpose

Remembers your pages input and states across multiple pages to improve your experience

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

_tobacco_session

Purpose

Remembers your pages input and states across multiple pages to improve your experience

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

akavpau_waitingroom

Purpose

Makes sure you are not sent back to wait for coronavirus tests to become available once you have been let through to apply for one

Expires

Up to 10 minutes after you’ve finished using the ask for a coronavirus test service

Name

akavpwr_waitingroom

Purpose

Makes sure you cannot ask for a coronavirus test when there are none available and that you cannot 'game' the system by clicking refresh multiple times

Expires

Up to 30 seconds after you’ve left the page where you wait to ask for a coronavirus test

Name

ARRAffinity

Purpose

Helps stop our site crashing by spreading traffic across web servers

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

ASP.NET_SessionId

Purpose

Remembers your pages input and states across multiple pages to improve your experience

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

CAM

Purpose

Helps stop our site crashing by spreading traffic across web servers

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

CookieConsent

Purpose

Remembers your cookies settings on our website

Expires

1 year

Name

csrftoken

Purpose

Helps keep the site secure by preventing cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks

Expires

1 year

Name

mobile.display

Purpose

Determines if you should see the mobile version of our site

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

mobile.nodisplay

Purpose

Determines if you should see the desktop version of our site

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

nhsuk-cookie-consent

Purpose

Remembers if you used our cookies banner

Expires

When you close the browser (if you do not use the banner) or 1 year (if you use the banner)

Name

test

Purpose

Used to tell us if you have accepted cookies to help with health campaigns

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

WFE

Purpose

Keeps you connected to a web server when you use our website

Expires

When you close the browser

Name

.AspNetCore.Session

Purpose

Remembers your pages input and states across multiple pages to improve your experience

Expires

When you close the browser

Change your cookie settings

Some cookies, like those used to measure how you use our website, are not needed for our website to work.

These cookies can help us make our website better, but we'll only use them if you say it's OK.

How we use the information we collect

To find out how we collect, store and use information about you or your visit, see the NHS website privacy policy.

Page last reviewed: 16 January 2023
Next review due: 16 January 2026